


here you're known

by assassinactual



Series: endlessly upward [8]
Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-04
Updated: 2016-07-04
Packaged: 2018-07-19 23:44:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7382347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/assassinactual/pseuds/assassinactual
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For Root to be loved is to be seen, to be heard, to be understood.</p><p>Set in my Samaritan is defeated and everyone is alive and happy and okay universe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	here you're known

It starts in the car on their second date, when Sameen pulls the knife back from Root’s neck. When she decides to trust Root – or trust that she’s working for the Machine, at least. When she puts the car in gear and follows Root’s direction to turn right onto the street.

The sudden shift comes from logic, and Sameen’s dedication to her mission. She’s still hostile, still confrontational. She acts dismissive when Root passes along the Machine’s cryptic commands, but she listens to them.

Root expects this from reading Sameen’s file, and knows this is why the Machine wanted them to team up. What she doesn’t expect is for the file to be such an accurate reflection of Sameen Shaw. To see the idealized version of her that she’s read about come to life in front of her. Throughout their day together she tests Sameen, pushes her and needles her. Root finds she lives up to all of her hopes and expectations, and so much more.

Later, Root will understand that this moment is the tiny pebble that starts the avalanche.

 

Sometimes Root feels off balance around Sameen. Like she’s spinning out of control. Like she’s not the one taking the initiative and driving things anymore, she’s just reacting to Sameen.

So Root flirts with her, throwing out ridiculous pickup lines and over the top come-ons that can’t possibly be ignored. It provokes a predictable eye-roll, or the familiar defensiveness. For a while Root feels like she’s back on stable ground, feels like she’s back in control.

Except, under the hostile and disinterested front Sameen pays attention, even to her flirting. She picks up that Root isn’t doing it just to tease her. That Root is honestly intrigued by her and attracted to her and likes to provoke her adorable grumpy frown. Sameen takes in everything Root gives her, even the little bits of honesty she wraps up in irreverent jokes. She listens to and takes time to decode everything Root says.

Root is so used to hiding herself. And to having the little pieces she does let out get ignored. Or get her called crazy, or worse. Someone taking the time to actually understand her is new.

New and wonderful and terrifying.

 

It’s not just her words that Sameen pays attention to.

They’ve ended up at her apartment – Sameen Grey’s apartment – after Root dropped in to give Sameen a hand with a number. She’s in the tiny kitchen, looking for a frying pan and crouches down to get at the lower cupboard just when Sameen is about to touch her on the shoulder to get her attention. Her hand brushes through Root’s hair instead, bumping against her head just behind her right ear.

Root reflexively flinches. She doesn’t like people touching that spot, though Sameen is usually an exception. Root stands and faces Sameen, pushing her hair back over her right shoulder and tilting her head a little to expose her implant scar to Sameen.

She steps into Root’s space, examining the scar for a moment. Then she’s back in front of Root, head tilted up a bit to look right in her eyes. With a single finger, she gently traces the edge of the irritated pink skin around the scar which Root habitually rubs at. Then she slides her hand up to cup around Root’s ear, still being careful of the scar. Sameen is so close now that Root can feel her breath against her lips.

Sameen waits a moment, as if asking permission. When Root pushes back against her hand slightly, Sameen threads her fingers through Root’s hair and pulls her in for a hard kiss.

 

To Root, there’s no one single turning point when she fell in love with Sameen. No hard line dividing her life into a before and an after.

She doesn’t see love as a simple true or false variable.

It’s in the progression of moments that make up the time she’s spent with Sameen. Every mission they’ve done together, every quiet night with just the two of them, every secret unveiled and connection made. Even the little everyday things, like the way Sameen can read her moods and shows her concern in her own way. And the way she carefully enunciates Root’s name.

The accumulation of their shared experiences and the understanding built between them. That’s what’s important to Root.

 

“Anyway, Schrödinger said that at its base level, the universe isn’t made up of physical matter. Just shapes. I thought that might make you feel better.”

It’s a half-formed thought that she’s been mulling over for a while. Something she’s been wanting to express to Sameen. Root’s pretty sure that from an objective point of view, what she’s saying to Sameen is wildly inappropriate on multiple levels. This fact, and the timing, is partly why she thinks Sameen will appreciate this.

She’s essentially thinking out loud as she speaks. Not entirely certain if she’s properly articulating what she wants to say, but trusting that Sameen will be able to work it out. Talking to herself is something Root’s always done when she’s working things out, though she rarely lets anyone other than the Machine and Sameen see into the process.

She gets a little distracted by the gunfight, and maybe doesn’t completely get across everything she’s trying to communicate. But from the incredulous little smile on Sameen’s face, she thinks she was successful. The quip about her _great shape_ worked, at least.

 

A week later, Sameen lingers at the door for a moment as she’s leaving, and says “Look, I don’t care if we’re all just shapes or whatever. I like your shape the way it is.”

It’s not just the admission of concern, of caring for Root. But the way she expresses it in Root’s language. That Sameen listens to and understands what she says, and uses it to communicate this back to her. It’s such a little thing, but it shows her Sameen truly knows her, and that means everything to Root.


End file.
